A Nation's Love
by MaruneKaite
Summary: “Hm… but if I am immortal and this is love, then I suppose I could love you for as long as I live, then?” Spain/Philippines


**Author's notes: **Hiya~ So I'm trying my shot at Spain and Philippines. Warning though, this is an OC Philippines and maybe an OC Spain since I'm not really sure how young Spain was when Magellan came to the Philippines. He was, I dunno, probably 14, 15, 16 years old when this happened? All I'm changing in his attitude for that age is he's still questioning what love is. So it might be confusing. Everything will be explained the read. Now, onwards to the fic, lavs.

**Disclaimer: **Antonio belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya, Juan belongs to Philippines which belongs to Philippines and Magellan, his boat and his crew belongs to history.**  
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Not a few moments ago, a young Antonio with his _señior_ Magellan and crew landed on an unknown island. Of course, they were used to it. They had been sailing for days, looking for spices that would satisfy Magellan's deal with King Charles I of Spain. He convinced the king to support his voyage to the Spice Islands while the king, in return, promised to give one-fifth of the profits. Magellan knew he couldn't pass this opportunity and so he sailed to his heart's content.

Why the nation himself had to come, he did not know. All he remembered was being called by the royal messenger in the middle of harvesting his scrumptious tomatoes then he was off. Good thing he secretly brought with him a stash of his beloveds. He'd have to have a dinner date with them later in which, of course, they would be the dinner.

Antonio had been wandering for hours now. It seems like they landed on the wrong side of the island; the one full of trees that towered over the seemingly small piece of land. It wasn't only the trees that had him worried though, all the other plants that grew everywhere in his path bothered him to no end. He had detached himself from the disruptive crew in hopes to find peace and quiet and yes, there was peace and quiet, all right, but this…

"This is just… impossible!" The nation sighed and leaned against the tree. He looked back from he came from and realized he had not marked anything to signal him his way back to _Trinidad_, the precious boat of his captain. He might as well be lost. The Spaniard chuckled to himself and scratched the back of his head, "What a smart guy I am."

Just as he was about to figure out his way out through the plants and trees that all looked the same, there was a rustle from behind him. He turned to the noise and gripped his sword, ready to slice up whatever was coming at him.

"_¿Quién está allí?_" he called.

Another rustle came as a response and then silence. The Spaniard stayed glued to his place for another minute, hand still gripping the golden handle of his sword before his legs began to move towards the tall grass where the rustling originated from. Sweat trickled down to his chin as he sternly asked again, "_¿Quién está allí?_"

A rustle and a child-like giggle was his response this time. A chubby tan face popped out and cried, "Wah!" before rolling on the dirt and giggling like there was no tomorrow. Antonio released his grip from his sword and kneeled, eyes focused on the laughing child. It was wearing only a soiled brown cloth on its waist, on its neck hung a necklace decorated with different stones. Its wrists and ankles had bracelets on them but instead of stones, sharp teeth hung on the short piece of string.

"Well, you look very tribal, _mi querido niño_," he lifted the child up with his hands under its armpits and noticed the grime that had stuck to its skin and the mess of shoulder-length dark brown hair it had, "and filthy, too."

The child smiled up at him and made a grab for his face but with his short stubby arms, how could he possibly do so? Despite this, the child laughed, somehow finding it amusing how Antonio's eyebrow rose together with the tips of his lips. Instinctively, he rose the child up in the air and made 'goo goo' sounds, the child's laughter becoming louder. He hung the child up in the air for a while; a small smile graced his tan face. Surprisingly, he found this laughter soothing, much more relaxing than the peace and quiet he was hoping for. Maybe he had found something better than his lovely red tomato friends?

"Antonio?"

Said Spaniard turned around, holding the child close, to see that one of the crew members had found him. "Ah, _mi amigo_-"

As Antonio was about to explain what had happened, someone grabbed the child from him. A woman beautifully dressed held the child tightly to her chest, whispering what seemed like soothing words to the child. A group of people were behind her, one of them, a man with a fine built stepped forward. He had a look of seriousness in his tan face and spoke of a language that Antonio did not know of. "_Senior_, you see, I do not know what you are speaking-"

"Antonio, it's alright. He's here to take the child," Magellan, who had come out from nowhere, put a hand on his shoulder. He called a man from the crew that had come with him to speak to the chieftain before continuing. "Apparently, they were looking for the young boy, Juan. He is the nation here."

"He? So it is a… boy?" Antonio inquired. Somehow, in the middle of his inspection, he had almost thought the child was a girl. Antonio stared at the child who stared back at him. The woman noticed this and stole the child's attention from him, walking away while wiggling her finger in front of its face. The group had started to leave and the crew along with them. Magellan himself had started to walk.

"_Si_. _Un muchacho_," Magellan took off his hat, a smirk plastered on his greasy face. "Why? You expected him to be a girl? You know you cannot court a child as young as that, _España_-"

"C-court, _señior_?!" A blush crept up on Antonio's cheeks. He strode forward to his captain's side, holding back the urge to hit him as he retorted, "I do not plan on courting it-_him_ at all. Or anyone, for that matter!"

The captain chuckled and placed back his hat on his head. "Relax, Antonio. I was just kidding. I never knew you could be so defensive," he teased, "normally, you'd just laugh it off and say, 'Oh, _señior_! Your jokes make me laugh like when my tomatoes roll off my stomach!' or something like that. Maybe you are serious about courting this nation, after all, hm?"

"Well, one cannot help but be defensive when you are cracking the jokes, _señior_ Magellan," said a still embarrassed Antonio but with less severity this time, "Especially with a complicated subject such as this."

"Ah, yes," sighed Magellan. "_Amor_. Such a complicated subject," he turned to Antonio and smirked, "for a nation at least."

"Eh?" This left Antonio confused. He stood there for a moment and watched his captain walk away before realizing he still needed to ask what he meant. "What are you trying to say, _señior_?" he called from afar.

"Nothing, Antonio. It was just one of those jokes your _señior_ Magellan would, as you say, crack." replied Magellan as he walked to clearing where everyone gathered. Before Antonio could talk to him some more, a group of people came up to the captain, probably to ask him some questions.

Antonio sighed and sat on a nearby rock, playing with a shell he found lying near it. He looked up at the sky and finally noticed it was night time, a fire was crackling in the middle of the clearing. Focusing on the flames that danced under the stars, he began to think of the "joke" Magellan cracked.

_Amor… a complicated subject for a nation? What did he mean by that? Certainly, love is a complicated subject for everyone, even for mortals such as Magellan himself. I can't simply be any different, can I? I mean, yes, I am immortal and they are not but everyone falls in love… the difference is, I could fall in love for as long as I live and they, being mortals… they…_

Before the thought could pierce his thick head, a small hand tugged on his sleeves. He looked down in surprise and saw the little child staring up at him in wonder. Juan seemed to see the distress he felt. Antonio smiled and picked up the child on his lap. "Juan, is it?"

The child giggled at the sound of his name and again, Antonio found himself soothed. He stared at the dark brown eyes of the innocent child as he smiled up at him, as if it was telling him to smile for him, too. The Spaniard did just that and felt the hand of the child grip his thumb. He began to bite it and suck on it, covering it with its slimy colorless saliva. Antonio's face scrunched in disgust but didn't bother ruining the child's fun. And he realized that the more he spent his time with this child, the more he had that tingly warm and relaxing sensation in himself.

"Juan, is this what you would call a nation's love?" Antonio asked the child but expected nothing better than a 'goo' and a 'gah'. "Ah, no matter. I don't know what love is yet anyway... but suppose we pretend I do."

"Mmah!" the child stopped what he was doing and looked at Antonio, maybe listening to what he was going to say.

Antonio continued, "If I am immortal and this is love, then I suppose I could love you for as long as I live, then?" The child merely grabbed the shell the Spaniard was playing with a while ago and began to try to break it with Antonio's thumb. He chuckled at the silliness of the child then picked him up by the armpits and raised him to his face, "_Escuchar_, I have a feeling you and I are going to be _amigos_ for a very long time. Until then, will you love me as long as you live?"

"Gah!" came the reply of the giggling Juan.

"Then it's settled, _mi pequeño_ Juan," Antonio got up, cradled the child close to him and walked to the fire, a satisfied smile on his lips. "_¡Usted va a ser mi pequeño hermano!_"

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**Author's Note**: Before you read the explanations below, I apologize for the grammatical mistakes. I don't have a beta reader and I admit I rushed the ending a bit. If there's anything you don't understand, feel free to comment.

**Story Explanations:**  
1) I think you all know this. Seeing as a nation is immortal and humans are not, they are most likely going to feel love forever until they disappear unlike us humans. We feel all these human emotions until we die. It would be harder for the nation to let go like for example, France and Je'anne de Arc. (Ew. And I also name it a 'Nation's Love'.) But of course, young Spain still couldn't understand it so he takes it lightly and takes it as brotherly love instead for Philippines.  
2) Yes, I named Philippines Juan. It's the most common one. I swear. Unless you want Jose. Jose Juan. Now that sounds redundant.  
3) Now, if you really know the whole history of Philippines, you'd be disappointed. I tried to write the meeting of Spain and Philippines the Hetalian way in my point of view and made them have this kind of brotherly connection. But in the end, Spain, or rather Spain's bosses, abused and enslaved the Philippines, taking away most of their freedom. Which led to the Japanese "invasion" and the helping of America and then our freedom. So, you could say Philippines could be the only country in Hetalia that supports the fact that "America is da hero!" XD

**Historical Explanations:**  
1) Magellan's discovery of the Philippines was caused by the search of spices during the Age of Exploration in the time of King Charles I of Spain. The deal they had is part of the introduction if you ever even bothered to read the fic. Fortunately, they were able to see land and landed their boats there. Surprisingly, the people were extremely hospitable to them and even took care of the sick or injured sailors. One man, Enrique, a Malay slave, was their translator. They responded to his dialect and so it was Magellan and Enrique who were the first men to circumnavigate the world.  
_2) Trinidad_ was the boat that Magellan was in charge of.

**Translations:** (BTW, I got it from an English-Spanish online translator so please feel free to correct me if the grammar is wrong.)  
1) _¿Quién está allí?_ = Who's there?  
2) _mi querido niño_ = my dear child  
3) _amigo_ = friend  
4) _un muchacho_ = a boy  
5) _Amor_ = love  
6) _escuchar_ = listen  
7) _mi pequeño_ = my little  
8) _¡Usted va a ser mi pequeño hermano!_ = You are going to be my little brother!


End file.
